9 Months

A Day Celebrating Dear Friends

I know this blog is typically for Maryn updates. Today though, I'm posting about something a little different.

Today is a special day.

Today is the day one of my dearest friends, Judi, will celebrate her amazing relationship with her partner, Jacob, in a wedding party with friends and family.

Today is also the day another of my dearest friends, Anjali, married the love of her life, Eric. This is her a year ago today as the most beautiful bride I think I've ever seen (This stunning photo of Anjie was taken by one of her friends, not me).

Finally, 4 years ago today also happens to be the day Maryn's parents traveled to Massachusetts to get hitched in a state that has a inclusive view of marriage. The picture of us was taken right after in downtown Lexington, Mass.

I married my dearest friend of all (Picture: Mike on a Martha's Vineyard beach where we spent our honeymoon).

She's already missing daddy

Mike left for Montreal, Canada today (to attend the ICMA conference and several days of board meetings) and will be gone a week. We had initially planned to make this a family vacation but plans changed a few months back. Although it would be nice to see Montreal again (in late summer not the dead of winter) it will be nice to do the solo caregiver thing in my own house as opposed to a fancy hotel abroad. Okay, so a few days in a nice Montreal hotel (with fabulous French croissants!!!) wouldn't be so bad, but I'm sure accommodating Maryn's needs in that environment would get old fast. I'm looking forward to some alone time with my girl, but I'll certainly be glad to see Mike's smiling face next week! I guess she isn't the only one missing him.

JJ

I have a lot of pictures I need to sort through from the weekend. Due to limited time this morning I'll post a few of those taken at the very end of the weekend. The Finks lent us their Johnny Jumper and Maryn has been enjoying all it has to offer.

Sittin'

DayCare- the Beginning

We knew it would happen eventually. That's right, she spent her first day in daycare today. 

Firstly, I want to say that we were incredibly lucky to have kept Maryn out of daycare until now. This luxury is due to a group of wonderful people: our respective employers who accommodated our non-traditional maternity/paternity leaves, our friends and family who helped out when we were in a pinch (Codie, GrandMa Jo, Nieka and Judi), and Granny Trish who single-handedly got us through the summer. Thank you all.

On to the daycare specifics. We chose a lovely woman named Jo who is about a 15-20 minute walk from our house. My attempts to get as much of our day-to-day lives within a reasonable walking distance of our house continue. Maryn is currently the only child there under the age of 4 so she'll get a lot of attention. Jo watches a 4 year old (little boy) who is in pre-school half the day, and several kids before and after school. If I remember correctly she has two 1st graders (a boy, and girl)and a 5th grade boy. Her house is actually right across the street from the grammar school Maryn might attend -if we don't home school. Jo tells me the little girl, Alison, is just tickled to have her there and loves to help out. Maryn will be there three days a week.

Mike dropped her off this morning around 7am. I was at work by then devouring my much needed cup of coffee. Jo assured him that we could call as much as we needed to today. I managed to limit my calls to one after lunch and one to Mike after he picked her up at 5:45.

All went well. Apparently she didn't even cry when he dropped her off. My guess is that she was mesmerized by all the little kids waiting to head off to school. She didn't nap great, and although her eating in the morning was a little slow she seemed to make up for it in the afternoon. So, all in all, not a bad 1st day. 

What a big girl.

Climbing with Dad

With intentions of taking a walk along the lake we headed into the city Sunday. The triathlon and a strong wind changed our plans but brought a nice discovery. A lovely children's garden near Soldier Field had some nice climbing equipment. And if you look close you can see Maddie in the background.